Stephen Curry couldn’t have done better PR for his first TV show than his performance Thursday at the Paris Olympics. The four-time NBA champion put up 36 points, shooting nearly 70% from three-point range, to propel Team U.S.A. to a comeback win that has sent them to a gold medal match against France. Even sweeter for his collaborators on “Mr. Throwback,” the game occurred on the comedy series’ launch day on Peacock, which has been streaming wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympics.
“I like to think Stephen did that for us,” series executive producer and writer David Caspe half-jokes while speaking during a Zoom interview Thursday afternoon. “It’s launch day, and he said, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go get 36 points just to draw extra attention to our TV show.’ That was really his master plan.”
The Olympics serve as a sequel of sorts to “Mr. Throwback,” which concludes with Curry jetting off to Paris for the games. He’s joined by his manager Kimberly (Ego Nwodim) and his middle-school teammate Danny Grossman (Adam Pally), freshly forgiven after he belatedly spilled his guts to Curry and the world about fabricating a conspiracy involving his daughter having a terminal disease. In response, Curry takes a swing at Grossman early in the finale – a climactic punchline that comes after the NBA star has seemed up for any type of comic setpiece over the season’s six episodes.
Stephen Curry in ‘Mr. Throwback’
On “Mr. Throwback,” Curry is shown undercover bossing, sipping on horse placenta, and tanking San Francisco’s economy via a shooting slump. Caspe shares that Curry’s main note as an executive producer was to “go harder” in writing those sequences.
“I don’t often get that note. We’ve all seen a celebrity playing against type: They’re known as a nice guy, and they play a huge asshole. We didn’t want to do that,” Caspe says. “When he said ‘go harder,’ I don’t think he meant edgier jokes as much as just more comedy. He didn’t want to just be the straight man. We leaned into a heightened version of who he’s known as. Like the line in the show: a Hall of Fame Sweetie Boy.’”
I was surprised by the moment in the finale when Steph goes viral for punching Danny in the face – mainly because I found it impossible not to think of when TMZ obtained a tape of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole at a Golden State Warriors practice two years ago. Then I read GQ’s set visit feature, which ended with an account of Nick Kroll yelling, “That’s some Jordan Poole shit!” while shooting that scene. Kroll’s joke isn’t in the final cut. Can you talk about the decision to keep that line out?
We wanted to be super respectful of any of Steph’s relationships and anything that could be problematic for him. That line was an ad-lib. And, while funny, we have so much respect for Steph and for Draymond and for the Warriors. We felt like maybe we just shouldn’t touch that.
